(Minghui.org) After over six months of incommunicado detention, a Deyang City, Sichuan Province resident was secretly sentenced to one year for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
A group of police officers and procuratorate staff broke into Ms. Xiang Xiqiong’s home on February 3, 2021 and took her to the local procuratorate. While she was released at around 11 p.m., the police arrested her again shortly after and blocked her family from visiting her.
Ms. Xiang’s family learned on December 8 that she was sentenced to one year and has been taken to the Sichuan Province Women’s Prison in Chengdu City.
Ms. Xiang’s ordeal dates back to November 9, 2019 when she was reported for distributing calendars with information about Falun Gong. The police raided her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books, photo of Falun Gong’s founder and other informational materials.
Ms. Xiang’s family went to the Gongnong Village Police Station to demand her release every day for the next 12 days. The police avoided talking to them. Ms. Xiang was released on bail on November 21.
The village official harassed Ms. Xiang at home a year later on November 12, 2020 and ordered her to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong, threatening to suspend her and her husband’s pension if she didn’t comply.
Ms. Xiang was brought to the police station on November 17, 2020 and questioned by the police about why she distributed materials about Falun Gong.
Two days later, the police took Ms. Xiang to the local procuratorate, where she was ordered to sign her case documents. She refused to sign. The officials threatened to taken her to prison.
The procuratorate summoned Ms. Xiang again on December 7, 2020 and questioned her again about her arrest for distributing Falun Gong materials a year before. Ms. Xiang still refused to sign her case documents.
Without her signature, the prosecutor still indicted Ms. Xiang months later and secretly worked with the court to have her convicted.
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